Americans Stop Drinking Soda

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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Americans have become more conscious of the effects of what they drink and eat. This is particularly true with soda, a trend that is not good for branded soda companies, particularly Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) and PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP). While their growth prospects overseas may remain, important research shows their best days in America are behind them.

According to new research from Gallup:

Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they avoid soda in their diet, while more than half say they avoid sugar. Meanwhile, more than nine in 10 Americans claim they try to include fruits (92%) or vegetables (93%) in their diet — slightly more than said this previously.

Based on the data, the vegetable industry should be thriving. However, there are no vegetable companies as large as Coke and Pepsi, so it is harder to discern the trend. Too bad, investing in large public companies that sell vegetables would be a good way to make money.

Unfortunately for the large soda companies, Americans have become educated about the fact that these drinks are bad for them. This level of education did not exist a generation ago. Now, almost everyone of any age is aware of health trouble like diabetes, which consumption of soda does not help.

Gallup researchers point out further:

Since 2002, soda and sugar have moved into the category of food a majority of Americans appear to consider bad for them. This year, more Americans than ever say they try to avoid drinking soda, while there has been little change in sentiment about avoiding sugar intake

In other words, soda is in a category of its own. People on average don’t worry about sugar as much, and Gallup indicates they worry even less about salt and carbohydrates.

Every once in a while, an entire industry falls into disrepute, and no amount of clever management or marketing can reverse the process. Soda has entered that category. Coke and Pepsi better find other businesses.

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Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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